Drilling mud (also referred to as a drilling fluid) is an important component of a drilling operation that, among other things, removes cuttings from the wellbore, controls formation pressures, maintains wellbore stability, and cools and lubricates the drilling equipment. The quality of the drilling mud affects the performance of the drilling process such as rate of penetration as well. Therefore, maintaining the fluid properties at desired levels enhances the efficiency and efficacy of drilling operations. Current methods of monitoring drilling mud properties are typically done by an engineer, who performs tests on samples of the returning fluid typically every 15 minutes. These tests investigate the returning fluid's characteristics and changes in the composition based on knowledge about the formation and the engineer's experience. However, due to uncertainties resulting from measurements, unknown downhole conditions, and time delay, maintaining the desired mud fluid properties is difficult using this in a manual analysis method. Further, because real-time drilling conditions are often not known, the timing of measurements cannot be optimized to account for changing real-time drilling conditions.
It should be understood, however, that the specific embodiments given in the drawings and detailed description thereof do not limit the disclosure. On the contrary, they provide the foundation for one of ordinary skill to discern the alternative forms, equivalents, and modifications that are encompassed together with one or more of the given embodiments in the scope of the appended claims.